Newslinks for Monday 10th November 2014

Cameron ditches green strategy in “roads revolution”

“David Cameron will put a multibillion-pound ‘roads revolution’ at the heart of the next election, to ease traffic jams and help the Tories win marginal seats. In a speech today the prime minister is due to pledge hundreds of miles of extra lanes on some of the busiest motorways and trunk roads. The plans will be among 100 road projects introduced by the end of the decade. Tory strategists hope that it will give MPs a strong message on voters’ doorsteps next May” – The Times (£)

FT analysis shows deeper cuts will be needed

“George Osborne must cut deeper into the budgets of the army, police and courts as the annual savings needed to meet his austerity targets are set almost to double to £48bn, Financial Times analysis shows. As Britain hits the midway mark of its decade of planned austerity, the findings suggest that far from the cuts becoming lighter after 2015 – as the chancellor and prime minister David Cameron have suggested – they are poised to become much harsher for departments outside the protected areas of health, schools and overseas aid” – Financial Times

May to face down European Arrest Warrant rebels

“Theresa May will face down Conservative backbenchers over the controversial European Arrest Warrant and warn that opting out of a series of EU justice measures would lead to thousands of foreign prisoners remaining in the UK…The Conservative rebellion is expected to be far smaller than originally predicted after Mrs May and David Cameron launched a campaign designed to convince sceptical backbenchers not to vote against the Government. Leading rebels said that they expect around that around 30 MPs who vote against the arrest warrant” – Daily Telegraph

Let’s not be handcuffed by the European Arrest Warrant – Melanie Phillips, The Times (£)

Miliband aims to shift focus to Europe

“Leaving the European Union would be a ‘disaster’ for Britain, Ed Miliband will say on Monday as he makes a pre-election pitch to business against the backdrop of continuing questions over his leadership. Mr Miliband will use a speech to the annual conference of the CBI, Britain’s biggest business lobby group, to present himself as a strong advocate of Europe, addressing business anxiety over growing euroscepticism in the UK” – Financial Times

Miliband has lost public confidence, aide admits

“Ed Miliband is struggling to convince the public that he can lead the country or even his own party, the woman brought in to revive Labour’s election campaign has conceded. Lucy Powell, who was promoted to vice-chairwoman of the operation last week, said that constant sniping from within the party about Mr Miliband’s leadership was fuelling ‘a wider concern’ among voters. In an attempt to flush out MPs plotting to replace him, she called on them to ‘decide what their plan is and get on with it’ or give him their backing” – The Times (£)

Labour plotters call off coup until after general election – The Sun (£)

Johnson: Labour’s mansion tax caused this rebellion

“What does ‘socialism’ mean, these days? Whenever Ed Miliband does come up with a concrete policy, it starts to unravel fast. I have been struck by the timing of the latest bout of rebelliousness. I believe it coincides with the unveiling of their flagship policy to put a new tax on property – called a ‘mansion tax’…The Labour nomenklatura are at last waking up to the horror of what a Labour government would mean – paying tens of thousands of pounds just for the right to live in the family home” – Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph

Kavanagh: Cameron’s dithering could still let Miliband in

“Ed Miliband is a dud Labour leader and would be an even bigger dud as Prime Minister. But the shocking fact is that despite this, he could still be in Downing Street in six months…Why? Because dithering David Cameron allowed a small band of ‘fruit and nutcases’ to steal his chance of sweeping election victory. He fatally underestimated voters who feel betrayed and insulted as ‘racists’ by snooty politicians. By branding them nutters, the PM drove even more disenchanted voters into the arms of Nigel Farage” – Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun (£)

Queen applauded as she leads Remembrance Day ceremony

“The Queen was applauded today in an unprecedented mark of appreciation as she led millions of Britons in remembering the fallen. The monarch laid a wreath on the Cenotaph at the national Remembrance Day service alongside senior Royals, veterans and the Prime Minister, despite heightened security after police thwarted an alleged terror plot on Thursday. The spontaneous smattering of applause, as she left Whitehall in central London, was a rare sound for a remembrance service usually characterised by respectful silence, and may have been in tribute to her fortitude at turning out to the service despite terror fears” – Daily Mail

Security chiefs warn that terrorist attack is almost inevitable

“The scale of terrorist activity is so great that an attack is ‘almost inevitable’ in the coming months, security chiefs have warned senior ministers. MI5 and Scotland Yard believe they have stopped three plots in London in the past four months, two of them after urgent raids as suspects were allegedly poised to strike. There was intense security for Remembrance Sunday yesterday, especially at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, where a large number of armed police were deployed” – The Times (£)

The Mail asks: Is there no one left in Britain who can make a sandwich?

“The UK’s biggest sandwich maker wants to recruit hundreds of workers from Eastern Europe because no Britons will do the job. Bosses from Greencore Group are flying to Hungary today in search of staff for its new factory. The firm, which supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda, admits it will have to recruit most of the 300 workers it needs from overseas” – Daily Mail

Cameron rebukes Russians in Berlin Wall message

“Mr Cameron paid tribute to the ‘values and freedoms, signified by the fall of the Berlin Wall in a message published in Bild newspaper. Praising ‘the courage of the German people’, he said that ‘as we do so, we remember the values and the freedoms that day came to signify. We reaffirm our belief in the territorial integrity of all European nations. And we remember too, the nations and peoples elsewhere in the world who still suffer and yearn for those freedoms today” – The Times (£)

How Reagan strove to mollify Thatcher during invasion of Granada

“Newly revealed tape recordings, secretly made by Ronald Reagan in the White House situation room, show how he sought to charm a livid Margaret Thatcher after the US invaded part of the Commonwealth without asking her permission…While US troops were still locked in combat, President Reagan called his closest international ally to apologise… ‘If I were there, Margaret, I’d throw my hat in the door before I came in,’ he says — a reference, apparently, to how a visitor unsure of how he would be greeted might toss his hat inside a house first. If it were thrown out, or in the days of the Wild West, shot, he’d know he was unwelcome” – The Times (£)

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